The Great Prince Shan eBook

“Tell me exactly what you know about my stay
in Berlin,” she demanded.

“Everything,” he answered gravely.

“You mean?”

“I mean that the New World to-day has progressed
where the Old World seems to have been stricken with
a terrible blindness. Our secret-service system
has never been better, and frankly I hear many things
which I don’t like. I am going to talk to
Lord Dorminster this afternoon very seriously, but
in the meantime I wanted to speak to you. I heard
a rumour that you thought of going back to Berlin.”

“I don’t know how you heard it, but the
rumour is not altogether untrue,” she admitted.
“I have not yet made up my mind.”

“Don’t go,” he begged.

“You think they really do know all about me?”

“I know that they do. I don’t mind
telling you that you had the shave of your life on
the Dutch frontier last time, and I don’t mind
telling you, also, that we had two of our men shadowing
you. One of them acted on his own initiative,
or you would never have crossed the frontier.”

“I rather wondered why they let me out,”
she observed. “Perhaps you can explain
why Frau Essendorf keeps on writing to me under my
pseudonym of ‘Miss Brown’ and to my reputed
address in Lincolnshire, begging me to return.”

“I could tell you that, too,” he replied.
“They want you back in Berlin.”

“They really do know, then, that I brought over
the dispatch from Atcheson?” she asked.

“They know it,” he assured her. “They
know, too, that it was chiefly a wasted labour.
Their London agents saw to that.”

“Perhaps,” she suggested, “you know
who their London agents are?”

“Sooner or later in our conversation,”
he remarked, “we were bound to arrive at a point—­”

“Come along and let us make up a set then,”
she intervened.

CHAPTER VII

Naida, deserted by her father, who had found a taxicab
to take him back to the purlieus of Piccadilly and
auction bridge, sauntered along at the back of the
tennis nets until she arrived at the court where Nigel
and his party were playing.

“I should like to watch this game for a few
minutes,” she told her companion. “The
men are such opposite types and yet both so good-looking.
And Lady Maggie fascinates me.”

Immelan fetched two chairs, and they settled down
to watch the set. Nigel, with his clean, well-knit
figure, looked his best in spotless white flannels.
Chalmers, a more powerful and muscular type, also
presented a fine appearance. The play was fast
and sometimes brilliant. Nigel had Maggie for
a partner, and Chalmers one of her friends, and the
set was as nearly equal as possible. Naida leaned
forward in her chair, following every stroke with
interest.

“I find this most fascinating,” she murmured.
“I hope that Lord Dorminster and his cousin
will win. Your sympathies, of course, are on
the other side.”